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entitled 'Semiannual Report: April 1, 2010 - September 30, 2010' which
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Office of the Inspector General:
United States Government Accountability Office:
GAO/OIG:
December 2010:
Semiannual Report: April 1, 2010 - September 30, 2010:
GAO-OIG-11-2:
Office of the Inspector General:
United States Government Accountability Office:
Memorandum:
Date: December 7, 2010:
To: Acting Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro:
From: [Signed by] Inspector General Frances Garcia:
Subject: Semiannual Report--April 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010:
In accordance with Section 5 of the Government Accountability Office
Act of 2008 (GAO Act),[Footnote 1] I am pleased to present my
semiannual report for the 6-month period ending September 30, 2010,
for your comments and its transmission to the Congress.
During the reporting period, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
sustained its efforts to finalize and implement the revised OIG order
to reflect our statutory role and responsibilities while continuing to
conduct audits and investigations. We posted the revised draft OIG
order for notice and comment and are in the process of considering and
responding to comments we received and to make further changes in the
order, as appropriate. In addition, we conducted an internal review of
our quality assurance framework and are in the process of taking steps
to further strengthen our processes and controls in response to this
review. We recognize that other changes may be needed as we finalize
our OIG order and complete our transition to the role of a statutory
OIG. As a result, we do not anticipate participating in a peer review
until we have completed this transition and have conducted and fully
addressed any recommendations resulting from at least two additional
internal inspections.
In support of our transition to a statutory OIG, we updated our annual
work plan based on an audit risk assessment of GAO operations that we
prepared, and initiated a survey to further identify key trends and
potential risks in GAO's procurement activities and control
environment that may warrant an in-depth evaluation. While our
engagements are generally focused on areas identified in our work
plan, adjustments to our work plan are made, as needed, in an effort
to ensure that we are in tune with changing conditions or emerging
issues and are able to respond appropriately.
In addition, we continued to participate in the activities of the
broader inspector general community, including the Council of the
Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and the Legislative
Branch Inspectors General quarterly meetings.
Audits and Inspections:
During the reporting period, we issued one audit report that evaluated
GAO's performance measure for reporting financial benefits for fiscal
year 2009, focusing on the reasonableness of the amounts claimed.
[Footnote 2] A summary of this report and GAO actions to address our
recommendation are presented in attachment I.
In addition, we supported GAO's annual internal inspection program's
review of the agency's financial disclosure and independence
functions, and initiated or continued work related to two other
engagements, which included a review of the adequacy of GAO's controls
to prevent and detect employee misuse of government travel cards and
an assessment of the effectiveness of GAO's information security
controls, including GAO's voluntary compliance with the Federal
Information Security Management Act and other federal information
security requirements, as appropriate.
We also responded to congressional inquiries regarding Freedom of
Information Act requests, the status of OIG recommendations, and
impediments, if any, to OIG's independence in carrying out its
oversight activities within GAO. We provided these responses only to
the requesters and do not anticipate their public release unless made
public by a requester.
Investigations and Hotline Activities:
Regarding our efforts to identify potential fraud, waste, and abuse,
the OIG's hotline is our primary source of complaints.[Footnote 3] The
OIG receives hotline complaints through a variety of sources, such as
through its toll-free hotline number and e-mail. As shown in table 1,
we had a total of 120 complaints, 13 of which were open at the start
of this 6-month reporting period.
Table 1: Summary of OIG Activity, April 1, 2010, through September 30,
2010:
Complaints:
Open at start of period: 13;
Received: 107;
Referred to FraudNet: 55;
Closed, insufficient information/no basis: 40;
Referred to other GAO units: 9;
Completed: 9;
Open at end of period: 7.
Source: GAO OIG.
Note: "Complaints" include inquires and allegations received by OIG.
[End of table]
Of the 13 open cases from the prior semiannual report period, we
closed 7 after conducting investigations, referred 2 to other GAO
units, and 4 remained open at the end of the period. These
investigations covered a wide range of matters such as issues related
to travel cards, travel voucher claims, time and attendance charges,
and documentation supporting a contract proposal. Our investigations
into these matters resulted in an employee suspension, recovery of
funds, and recommendations to strengthen internal controls in the area
of contractor parking and to consider the adoption of suspension and
debarment procedures analogous to executive branch agencies.
During the reporting period, we received 107 new complaints through
our hotline and other sources. Fifty-five of the 107 complaints
concerned matters related to other federal agencies and were referred
to GAO's FraudNet-—a governmentwide hotline operated by GAO staff that
receives complaints of fraud, waste, and abuse of federal funds. Of
the remaining 52 complaints received during the reporting period, we:
* closed 2 complaints after we completed our investigation related to
one complaint and provided assistance to the U.S. Postal Inspection
Service on another;
* closed an additional 40 complaints due to insufficient information
in the complaint upon which to base an investigation or after the
initial evaluation of a complaint determined that there was no basis
for action;
* referred 7 complaints that involved a variety of issues, including e-
mail scams, employee conduct, and technical issues, to other GAO units
for action; and;
* continued efforts on the remaining 3 complaints.
Agency Actions on Recommendations Made in Prior OIG Reports:
During this reporting period, GAO continued actions to respond to
recommendations intended to strengthen the agency's information
security program.[Footnote 4] Specifically, GAO has internally
reported that it has completed its testing of required information
security processes and procedures for all agency information systems
except for a recently implemented e-mail system; began finalizing a
comprehensive security incident response directive; and continued
efforts to finalize its privacy rule and order and to implement
privacy awareness training for all GAO staff.
Finally, I want to thank GAO's Executive Committee, managers, and
staff for their cooperation during our reviews.
Attachment:
cc: Cheryl Whitaker, Acting Chief Administrative Officer/Chief
Financial Officer, GAO:
Lynn Gibson, Acting General Counsel, GAO:
GAO's Audit Advisory Committee:
[End of section]
Attachment I:
Summary of GAO/OIG Reports and GAO Actions:
Reports Issued April 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010:[Footnote 5]
Performance Measure: GAO Had a Reasonable Basis for Reporting Its
Largest Financial Benefits for Fiscal Year 2009 (GAO/OIG-10-4, May 21,
2010).
Findings: Overall, the Office of the Inspector General's (OIG)
evaluation of 10 GAO accomplishment reports[Footnote 6] that claimed
financial benefits valued at $1 billion or more found that GAO had a
reasonable basis to claim financial benefits of $24.95 billion as
cited in its fiscal year 2009 Performance and Accountability Report.
[Footnote 7] These large dollar value accomplishment reports accounted
for 58 percent of GAO's $43 billion in total financial benefits
claimed for fiscal year 2009. Based on our work, GAO decided to delay
claiming financial benefits for the 10th accomplishment report until
fiscal year 2010 and mission teams made adjustments to 6 of the
remaining 9 accomplishment reports reviewed; these actions resulted in
GAO decreasing the total financial benefits claimed for these reports
from a total of $26.21 billion to $24.95 billion. Our audit also
identified an opportunity to strengthen GAO's process for reporting
financial benefits by incorporating more technical expertise in
calculating benefit amounts. In response to our work, in January 2010,
GAO announced new procedures for expanding the role of GAO's Center
for Economics to assist the mission teams in calculating financial
benefits for accomplishment reports if they are reported to be $500
million or more.
Recommendation and GAO Actions: To provide added assurance that GAO's
financial benefits performance measure reflects a reasonable estimate
of benefits and to provide a more efficient and effective system of
internal controls over large dollar value accomplishment reports, we
recommended that GAO management further analyze the issues we
identified and take appropriate steps to assist mission teams in
complying with agency policies to achieve greater reliability in the
amount of financial benefits GAO reports. GAO concurred and addressed
our recommendation by implementing new procedures to incorporate
independent reviews for fiscal year 2010 financial accomplishments of
$100 million or more, and require mission teams to consult with the
Center for Economics on the calculation for financial benefits of $500
million or more.
[End of section]
Reporting Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in GAO's Internal Operations:
To report fraud, waste, and abuse in GAO's internal operations, do one
of the following. (You may do so anonymously.)
* Call toll-free (866) 680-7963 to speak with a hotline specialist,
available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
* Send an e-mail to OIGHotline@gao.gov.
* Send a fax to the OIG Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Hotline at (202) 512-
8361.
Write to:
GAO Office of Inspector General:
441 G Street NW, Room 1808:
Washington, DC 20548:
Obtaining Copies of GAO/OIG Reports and Testimony:
To obtain copies of OIG reports and testimony, go to GAO's Web site:
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/about/workforce/ig.html].
Congressional Relations:
Ralph Dawn, Managing Director, dawnr@gao.gov, (202) 512-4400:
U.S. Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7125
Washington, DC 20548.
Public Affairs:
Chuck Young, Managing Director, youngcl@gao.gov, (202) 512-4800:
U.S. Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7149
Washington, DC 20548.
[End of section]
Footnotes:
[1] Pub. L. No. 110-323, 122 Stat. 3539 (Sept. 22, 2008).
[2] GAO, Office of the Inspector General, Performance Measure: GAO Had
a Reasonable Basis for Reporting Its Largest Financial Benefits for
Fiscal Year 2009, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/OIG-10-4] (Washington, D.C.: May 21,
2010).
[3] Complaints include inquires and allegations received by OIG.
[4] GAO, Office of the Inspector General, Information Security:
Evaluation of GAO's Information Security Program and Practices for
Fiscal Year 2009, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/OIG-10-3] (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 4,
2010).
[5] In addition to the report cited, we issued our semiannual report
for the 6-month period ending March 2010: GAO, Office of the Inspector
General, Semiannual Report: October 1, 2010 through March 31, 2010,
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/OIG-10-5] (Washington,
D.C.: June. 15, 2010).
[6] Accomplishment reports are used to document the amounts claimed as
financial benefits and are linked to specific recommendations or
actions taken in response to GAO's work.
[7] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-234SP].
[End of report]